Election Commission has stamped that the largest fund of 210 crore rupees in the year 2017-18 from the Electoral Bond has been received by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). All the parties were able to get a donation of just Rs 11 crore from this bond. The Election Commission has informed the Supreme Court on Thursday and confirmed the data in the ongoing hearing in this matter.
In order to increase transparency in politics and monitor the use of cash during the campaign, Modi government came with electoral bonds, these bonds proved to be the most beneficial to the ruling BJP. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has challenged the electoral bond system in the Supreme Court.
Electoral bonds can now be purchased only from State Bank of India (SBI). According to the reply received under the Right to Information (RTI) of ADR, the sale of Electronic bonds has gone up by 62% in the past year.
According to the Times of India, in the year 2016-17, the BJP received a total of 997 crores and a total donation of 990 crores in 2017-18. This is about five times the amount of money the Congress has received during this period. During the hearing on a petition filed by advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Election Commission, the bench chaired by CJI Ranjan Gogoi said about the funds received from the Electoral Bond. The Election Commission has said, "According to the receipt given by BJP, it has received 210 crore rupees from Electronic Bond. All the other parties have received a donation of Rs 11 crore from them.
Prosecutor Prashant Bhushan, who was present on behalf of the ADR, had the same argument that corporation and industry are benefitting from the electoral bond, and BJP receives 95 percent of the funds received from such bonds.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analyzed the details of taxes submitted by various parties to the Election Commission. ADR is an election research group working on a non-profit basis.
Any donor can hide their identity and collect electronic bonds worth Rs one crore from State Bank of India, and deposit them into bank accounts of political parties of their choice. This system does not open the identity of donors and it is also exempt from tax.
Election Commission has also expressed its doubts about political funding through unknown banking system like Electoral Bond in its comments. But the central government had started this bond with this claim that it will increase transparency in political funding and clean money will come. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had written in January 2018, "Elemental bonds have been brought to bring 'clean' money in the system of political funding and to increase transparency. '
